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Z9 800pf first outing questions

Started 4 months ago | Questions thread
Micheal Hall Senior Member • Posts: 1,345
Re: Z9 800pf first outing questions
6

Yep, definitely looking like atmospherics at play to me. Even the bokeh disturbances.

I don't have the 800, but do have an older 400mm 2.8 AF-S II and 600mm f/4 FL and I've struggled with atmospherics a lot. To the point I had the 400mm checked out twice to be sure nothing was wrong with it!

Even on cool (but sunny) mornings, when I thought it wouldn't be an issue, photographing down the length of a soccer field was a struggle to get sharp images. However, once the sun was behind clouds for about 15 minutes, images at a distance were pin sharp. Sun comes out from behind the clouds and in another 10 minutes, the images start to suffer again.

Other than reducing the amount of space/atmosphere between me and my subjects (not really an option on a large field) I really don't know how to mitigate it. I can't change the time or location of the game or wait until it's cloudy. Up to this point, I've specialized in indoor sports, but with the addition of the longer glass I am really wanting to push outdoors as well ... but the atmospherics really wreak havoc on the results.

When the conditions are right, the images are stunning.

With animals, I imagine you'll have to choose your time of day and shooting conditions carefully, get as close as possible, and watch out for the bright highlights in the background that can show off the effects of atmosphere disturbances ...
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Micheal

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